>I'm an open source guy only as much as it makes sense.

That means you're not really an open source guy. You're just using whatever is best on the market at the time.

So you don't use any closed source software? What exactly is the bar for "open source guy" ? Sounds kind of like a No True Scottsman situation to me.

When the open source option is significantly less secure, I'm not going to use it, sorry. I'll take the fundamentalist approach where I can...for example, Purism laptops or Raptor Talos hardware running BSD.

That kind of option doesn't really exist with phones because of market forces. This idea that Android is some better moral choice is a delusion.

Then that would mean no one except for Richard Stallman are open source guys

And even he used to begrudgingly use non-free blobs while he didn't have an alternative.

Is this a No True Open Source Guy argument?

I have been having difficulty finding a good android phone that could replace the iPhone 5SE.

If I go apple again, I no longer have the ability to sync my phone, since my Mac died under a glass of wine and I "replaced" it with a Dell Precision 5520 running Arch because the MacBook Pro lineup was untenable.

I'd go apple again if I could actually backup,sync,etc my phone. It's a good device in isolation. But don't dare step out of the apple ecosystem.

Why not to use iCloud? It handles backups and sync.

Windows & iTunes in a VM?

Don't forget about Blackberry! :P

New Blackberries are Android though.